


Dustbowl Dance

by wyvryn



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1910s, Alternate Universe - Western, Cis Boys, F/F, F/M, Historical Inaccuracy, Light Angst, Major character death - Freeform, Minor Character Death, TW for blood, beware a fan fave dies, cis girls, tw for guns, wild west lesbians
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 07:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15043676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyvryn/pseuds/wyvryn
Summary: Trixie is kicked off her land in the middle of a drought and picked up by a friendly group looking for a place to build a new home. The only problem is, the group is caught in a gang war with a group of bandits.(Whoops I’m bad at summaries)(Inspired by Dustbowl Dance by Mumford and Sons)





	Dustbowl Dance

**Author's Note:**

> I’m sorry for...
> 
> A) Typos and mistakes, it’s late at night and I really want to get this posted before I go to bed
> 
> B) Historical Inaccuracy. I’m a history buff, so it hurt a little to stray away from accuracy for the sake of a story

She was kicked off her land at the age of eighteen.  
Her parents couldn’t stand her and didn’t have the money to take care of her at that. The small farm couldn’t make money in the drought. Their town had turned into a dustbowl.  
She remembered being chased out of the house by her mother, tripping over the frills of her dress.  
She remembered the taste of hot sand and blood, her mother and father yelling at her to get off their land. 

Beatrice pushed herself up, unshed tears stinging her eyes, threatening to roll down her cheeks. She wiped the crimson droplets away from her nose, only smearing the blood further across her face. Through the screams of her parents, she stumbled forward in a daze, the sun beating down on her skin. She threw her heels off and started running as fast as her blistered feet could take her. The young teen felt beads of sweat rolling down her face, mixing with her streaming tears and blood, staining the sand below her. 

Beatrice ran through the once abundant town that she grew up in, heat causing her to hallucinate flickers of the past. There used to be pine trees towering over the buildings, flowers and assorted herbs growing in the baskets hanging from the supports of the stores on Main Street. Children laughed and played in the street, running into the river that ran beside the small town. Mothers hung clothes to dry in the sun. 

But it wasn’t like that anymore.  
The once green town had dried up into a brittle, brown ghost town. Everyone but her parents had left to look for water. Beatrice supposed they had died from dehydration along the way.  
She supposed she would as well, as she was now well into the desert. 

Beatrice collapsed into a heaping pile of pink frills and lace. Her breathing was getting heavier and heavier by the minute, the taste of sand weighing heavy in her mouth. Her gaze was getting blurry, her mind losing consciousness. 

And her eyes closed. 

~•~•~

Beatrice woke up on horseback, her arms wrapped around the torso of someone, most likely a female by the feel of it.  
Her nose had been stuffed with a wad of rough canvas to sop up the blood previously running. She no longer wore the lacy dress, but instead a turquoise blouse and canvas pants. 

The woman she clung to appeared to have curly black hair, cut to about shoulder length. She wore a thin whistle blouse with the arms chopped off. Her arms were wrapped in bandages and scars, as well as her neck. From the way she was yelling at the horse and rider beside them, her voice was high pitched. 

Beatrice shifted and nudged the rider.  
“Hey…” she choked out. Her voice had become raspy and dry. 

The woman looked back at her passenger. Her eyes were a hazelnut brown, mascara bringing out the little specks of green and yellow surrounding her iris. Her lips were covered in a light pink lipstick, kind of like the pink tulips that her mother used to grow in the garden. A small mole sat by her mouth, balancing out her perfect face.  
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Look who’s awake!”

“Where am I? Did you pick me up?”

The woman nodded.  
“We found you in the heat. Poor thing, you were almost dead from dehydration. I convinced the others to take you with us.” She explained. 

Beatrice nodded in thanks.  
“What’s your name, Ms?” The girl asked. 

“Dela” the woman replied. “I found the tag in the back of your dress when I took it off. I’m guessing your name is Trixie?”

Trixie nodded. “Yeah, Beatrice, Trixie, Bea, Tracy, whatever. So, where are you taking me? And what do you mean by the ‘others’?”

Dela looked ahead to the horizon. “The ‘others’ refer to the group that I travel with. We’re all traveling up North to find a good place to build a new town. The drought wiped almost everyone out, so we’re the remainders.”

“Ah…” Trixie nodded. “The drought wiped out my town as well. Pinewood was its name.”

Dela chuckled. “One of our old group members is from there, actually. He was the rookie. Picked him up from a cave. Poor thing was almost dead. One of our leaders, Jason, took a liking to him and decided to let him come along. About a week ago he decided to take another route up North, he said he’d meet us up there.”

“What was his name?” Trixie asked. 

“Matthew.”

Trixie felt a twinge in her heart. She definitely knew him. Very well.  
He was her best friend.  
And she really missed him.

~•~•~

The ride was long. And dirty. And hot and sweaty and Trixie hated it.  
By the time Dela and the other rider beside them stopped, it was sunset.  
They had stopped in a cave-like rock formation with a small stream of water spurting out of the side of the red rock.  
Dela swung herself off of her ride and helped Trixie stumble down.  
The raven-haired woman gestured to the other rider, now combing his horse’s mane.  
“Hey, Danny!” Dela called. “Come over here and meet the new kid!”

The boy turned to face Trixie. His hair was a mess from riding all day, clumps of sand clinging to the dark brown locks. A red bandanna was tied around his mouth and nose, probably to keep the sand out. He donned a leather vest and white blouse, a belt tied around his waist to hold a gun. He wore a sash across his chest to hold bullet refills and ripped canvas pants. His leather boots were filthy from riding. From what she could see of his face, he looked to be no more than 18.

He ran over and pulled his bandana down to greet Trixie.  
The blonde had expected him to be stone cold and silent, but as he shook her hand vigorously, talking her head off about how excited he was to meet her, she realized this boy was the exact opposite. It seemed as if sunshine radiated off of him. Like a personification of a sunflower.  
“Hi!!!” He smiled. “My name is Danny Noriega!! Sharpshooter of the band!! I really like that dress that you were wearing, I cleaned it up and sewed it back together for you! I really like sewing, do you like sewing?!”

This kid never stopped talking. Did he even breathe? Ever?

Trixie was saved by a new arrival coming from the west. Galloping towards them was a band of about four horses, as well as a horse-driven wagon. Danny ran up beside Dela at the entrance of the cave, waving his arms and calling to them. 

The horse in the lead stopped. Atop its back sat a slender woman. She swung her leg over the side of the horse and jumped off. A black, thin button up blouse hung off her lean frame. On her legs sat messily sewn denim pants, cut off at the knees. Her feet were bare besides the bandages wrapped around them. Her hair was haphazardly cut to about shoulder length, her bangs looked like they had been attacked by a drunken squirrel with a pair of scissors. The uneven blonde strands of hair framed her face perfectly. Dark circles sagged under her eyes, as if she hadn’t slept in days. Against the dark, her blue-green eyes shone beautifully. 

The woman was gorgeous.

The stranger helped her companions get off their horses.

Trixie shuffled over to Danny, who was smiling and waving at the newcomers, not taking her eyes off of the blonde beauty, who was now helping a tall brunette man tie the horses up for the night.  
Trixie tapped Danny on the shoulder and leaned down to whisper into his ear.  
“Who is that? In the black?”

“That’s Katya. Want me to introduce you two?” He asked. 

Trixie nodded in excitement. Danny put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. Katya turned to look at him. The dark haired boy gestured for her to come over. She said a few words to her companion and jogged over.  
“Ah! Hey Danny. Is this Beatrice?”

She turned to Trixie and took her hand in both of hers.  
“Bonjour, Privyet! I’m Yekaterina Petrovna Zamolodchikova!” She grinned. 

Trixie’s jaw hung open.  
“I-I… don’t think I can pronounce that.” She stuttered. 

“Then call me Katya”

•~•~•

The group turned out to be an odd bunch. 

There was Katya, the Montreal born Russian, a complete nutjob. A beautiful nutjob.  
Sharon and was one of the leaders, she had a bit of a creepy feeling to her. Her long blonde hair was dirty and matted, and like Katya, she looked highly sleep deprived. The other leader was Jason, a stylish young man in his 20s. He looked the best kept out of all of them. He seemed cold at first, but Sharon assured Trixie he’d warm up to her.  
Chad and Fame were the right hands of Sharon and Jason, both gifted marksmen. 

But besides them, Trixie didn’t really get to talk to the others. DJ was apparently Dela’s husband, nobody knew Milk’s real name, Alyssa was out of her mind, Detox was done with everything and everyone, and Max somehow ended up in America by freak accident. 

She had pieced that information together from accidentally overheard conversations, a product of extreme boredom as she tried to sleep. The dripping of the water from the crack in the cave was keeping her up. She asked Danny earlier why they couldn’t just stay in the cave with the fresh water source and all, but he said that it wasn’t enough for everyone. Trixie knew in the back of her mind that there was a more pressing matter, but she let it be. 

A million thoughts flooded her mind as she listened to the ‘drip, drip, drop’ of the water. She missed her bed. She missed Matthew. She missed Pinewood. Her back hurt, her ‘bed’ was just a few blankets piled on top ofeach other. 

A voice suddenly jerked her train of thought off its tracks.  
“Trixie?”

It was Katya.  
Trixie flopped over to her side to face the blonde.  
“Hey. What’s up?”

Katya glanced around nervously, checking to see if she had woken anyone.  
“Sharon sent me,” she whispered, “I have to talk to you about something.”

Trixie nodded and shook her blanket off. Katya grabbed her wrist and tugged her outside the and up to a small cliff.  
“Sit”.

Trixie obliged.  
Katya plopped down across from her.  
“Okay. Here’s the deal. If you stay with us, you’re going to be in a lot of danger. There’s a gang that Sharon has beef with, and their constantly trying to hunt us down and pick us off. I don’t know the whole story, but I should really let Sharon explain the rest. All I know is it’s not pretty. The other group’s leader is a relentless bandit, leading the rest to rob innocent people. It’s not pretty.”

Trixie sat and nodded throughout the entire explanation. She made up her mind at the very beginning. She layed a delicate hand over Katya’s.  
“If I don’t stay, I’ll die on my own. This is my only chance of survival.”

The young blonde felt her companion’s hand tense under hers.  
“So you’ll stay?!” Katya exclaimed. 

“I’ve got no choice. Yeah, I’ll stay.”

**Author's Note:**

> I’m also gonna say in advance that there’s a slim chance I might not finish this. Please let me know if you want me to continue!!!


End file.
